Teachers at Emma could be roughly divided into two categories regarding the use of intranet web pages for delivering course information - those who do, and those who don't. How does this affect your decision about whether or not to use Moodle?
If, over the past few years, you've created your own set of web pages on Emma's intranet for the purpose of electronically delivering course materials to your students, you may be wondering if you should bother learning to use Moodle. After all, you've put a fair amount of time into creating these web pages, linking them and keeping them up to date.
If that's working for you and you're comfortable with it, then there is probably no reason to get involved with Moodle.
But suppose that, in addition to posting web pages (which Moodle can do easily, with very flexible organization), you might be interested in using the web to elctronically do the following with your classes:
Chat - sort of like instant messaging with multiple students at one time, say during quiet study.
Discussion forums.
Glossaries for the course.
Journals.
Quizzes.
Surveys.
Blogs.
Wikis.
Moodle can help you do any or all of these things as well, in the same space that you post assignments, announcements, etc.
And what if you've never put any materials for your course on the web?
You may not feel the need to do that, and that's ok. All the talk of Moodle lately is not a directive to use it, especially if you see no need.
But if there's even one thing on that list above that you'd like to try, then perhaps you should take a peek at Moodle to find out what it can do.
There is a learning curve to Moodle, though perhaps not a very steep one. If you are uncertain, probably the best approach is to pick just one (ok...maybe two) of the things on the list above that you'd like to try with a class. Take the plunge and try out that one thing. It will help you learn a bit about Moodle, perhaps enough to help you decide whether you want to do more with it, or not.
If, over the past few years, you've created your own set of web pages on Emma's intranet for the purpose of electronically delivering course materials to your students, you may be wondering if you should bother learning to use Moodle. After all, you've put a fair amount of time into creating these web pages, linking them and keeping them up to date.
If that's working for you and you're comfortable with it, then there is probably no reason to get involved with Moodle.
But suppose that, in addition to posting web pages (which Moodle can do easily, with very flexible organization), you might be interested in using the web to elctronically do the following with your classes:
Chat - sort of like instant messaging with multiple students at one time, say during quiet study.
Discussion forums.
Glossaries for the course.
Journals.
Quizzes.
Surveys.
Blogs.
Wikis.
Moodle can help you do any or all of these things as well, in the same space that you post assignments, announcements, etc.
And what if you've never put any materials for your course on the web?
You may not feel the need to do that, and that's ok. All the talk of Moodle lately is not a directive to use it, especially if you see no need.
But if there's even one thing on that list above that you'd like to try, then perhaps you should take a peek at Moodle to find out what it can do.
There is a learning curve to Moodle, though perhaps not a very steep one. If you are uncertain, probably the best approach is to pick just one (ok...maybe two) of the things on the list above that you'd like to try with a class. Take the plunge and try out that one thing. It will help you learn a bit about Moodle, perhaps enough to help you decide whether you want to do more with it, or not.